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Home Run Derby: What to expect, bracket predictions

It might be true, however, that he has the strength of a thousand men.Advertisement

The first-round matchups: Stanton vs. Gary Sanchez, Judge vs. Justin Bour, Cody Bellinger vs. Charlie Blackmon, and Mike Moustakas vs. Miguel Sano.
Judge, who leads the majors with 30 homers, pounded a 513-foot shot and beat fellow rookie and third-seeded Bellinger, who was taking pitches from his father Clay Bellinger, a former major league hitter.
“It was a blast”.
The Home Run Derby title capped an awesome first half for Judge, who struggled mightily in his first taste of the majors last season and wasn’t even a lock to make the Yankees roster out of spring training. “Everything about today was fantastic”.
Stanton, with the home crowd behind him, got off to a very sluggish start, with just one homer in his first 11 swings.
Unbelievably, he managed to get past Miami’s own Justin Bour in the first round, needing 23 home runs to win.
“We’ve had talks with him about this day and this week”, Stanton said.
He finished up with 22 home runs in the first round, the most of anybody up to that point.
The final round was nearly anti-climactic. Maybe fans were assuming Judge was going to win the final after his semifinal victory.
Sano went first and hit 10 home runs. When a writer asked Kershaw if he thought Judge had a chance to set the single-season home run record, Kershaw gave the writer a quizzical look. He still had 1:53 left on the clock.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says Aaron Judge is the kind of player “who can become the face of the game”. He is attempting to join Ken Griffey Jr.
After being called up at the end of the 2016 season and struggling to adapt to the big leagues, Judge has come back this season and blown up, leading the majors in home runs (30), ranking second in the A.L.in runs batted in (66) and third in batting average (.329).
Yankees rookie Aaron Judge felt no pressure to live up his hype in Monday night’s Home Run Derby.
“I was definitely nervous going into it; I think everyone was a little nervous”, Judge said.
Like being cheated out of eight seconds of precious time what shut up I’m not bitter you’re bitter. I’ve got no expectations.
“I mean, there is no other word to describe it”, Manfred said.
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